This invention relates to new weight-control compositions comprising mixtures of edible cellulose fibers and/or colloidal cellulose microfibrils, incorporated with low-molecular animal and/or vegetable proteins, crosslinked with edible non-covalent and/or covalent crosslinking agents, to provide compositions possessing a water-expandable property such as to grow at least to several times their dry volume in an aqueous acidic medium. The above mixture is compressed in dry powder forms into tablets and/or granular compositions capable of swelling at the acid pH of the stomach into a firm gelatinous physical mass or masses that effectively serve to provide a temporary reduction of the appetite by mechanical rather than systemic action.
The medical literature provides abundant evidence that the excessive intake of food and overweight constitutes a series health problem. Calorie intake above an individual's needs as a result of the excessive consumption of foods damage the heart and the circulatory system, particularly in the case of aged persons, pregnant women, and people suffering from diabetes. Recently, the use of appetite-reducing medicaments has become widespread. However, such drugs act as stimulants of the central nervous system and, therefore, the continuous administration thereof leads to series damages of the central nervous system and also to habituation. The side effects of such systemic drugs to control weight have become so series in recent time that they have come under FDA control. Amphetamines, for example, can no longer be used for weight control except by prescription under a physican's control; they have been removed for over-the-counter sales.
Recently a number of attempts have been made to solve this problem by the administration of compositions containing indigestible substances. The use of these compositions leads to the feeling of fullness without causing weight increase. The following additives have been suggested: casein (British Pat. No. 990,523), mixtures of egg-albumin, casein, cellulose-ether, guar gum, agar pectin, carrageen, and sodium alginate (British Pat. No. 993,308), guar gum (British Pat. Nos. 1,041,600 and 1,106,882), a mixture of soluble polyglucose citrate and insoluble polyglucose (British Pat. No. 1,182,961), microcrystalline cellulose (U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,104), a mixture of 50% of glutin flour, 1-10% of vegetable gums, and 50% of microcrystalline cellulose, peanut-shell, or wood-flour (U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,104), edible cheese (DAS No. 1,442,021), and 5-30% of finely dispersed pure cellulose (DAS No. 1,959,196). Special dry cakes for diabetic people have also been described, prepared from 100% of soya flour and 30-50% of protein (DAS No. 2,060,797). None of the above products meets in a satisfactory manner the requirements of pleasant and permanent consumption, good taste, and easy absorption from the intestinal tract.
Many efforts have been made to use conventional fibrous cellulose as a bulking agent in low calorie food compositions and in pharmaceuticals. Fibrous cellulose has the advantage, in addition to providing desirable dietary fiber, of providing desired bulk without calories. However, a principal defect of this material has been its objectionable texture. This characteristic has greatly limited the use of fibrous cellulose both in the field of food technology and the field of pharmaceutical preparations. When fibrous cellulose has been mixed according to conventional methods with other food ingredients, the fibrous cellulose is usually very noticeable to the taste, is not smooth, has a fibrous or gritty feel to the tongue and mouth when chewed, and tends to accumulate as an insoluble or residual material in the mouth. As a result, the food compositions themselves have tended to be rendered unpalatable by the addition of fibrous cellulose. Reduction of the fibrous cellulose content of such compositions to the point where it is not detectable when chewed has effectively reduced the proportion of fibrous cellulose to the point where it has no longer been effective as a bulking agent or a source of significant dietary fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,719 disperses fibrous carbohydrates in a solution of cellulose ethers, subsequently drying the gelled mixture up to temperatures as high as 300.degree. C. to increase palatability by masking the fibrous taste of the fibrous carbohydrate.